# Large-image Object Detection for Fine-grained Recognition of Punches Patterns in Medieval Panel Painting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12489 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.12489/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 40 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Jan 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.0312/) (2014)
- [Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.01497/) (2015)
- [End-to-End Object Detection with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.12872/) (2020)
- [You Only Look Once: Unified, Real-Time Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02640/) (2015)
- [Rich feature hierarchies for accurate object detection and semantic segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1311.2524/) (2013)
- [YOLOv10: Real-Time End-to-End Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14458/) (2024)
- [A Data Set and a Convolutional Model for Iconography Classification in Paintings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11697/) (2020)
- [Multiple instance learning on deep features for weakly supervised object detection with extreme domain shifts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.01178/) (2020)
- [A Strong and Reproducible Object Detector with Only Public Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13027/) (2023)
- [DeepPainter: Painter Classification Using Deep Convolutional Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.08763/) (2017)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The attribution of the author of an art piece is typically a laborious manual process, usually relying on subjective evaluations of expert figures. However, there are some situations in which quantitative features of the artwork can support these evaluations. The extraction of these features can sometimes be automated, for instance, with the use of Machine Learning (ML) techniques. An example of these features is represented by repeated, mechanically impressed patterns, called punches, present chiefly in 13th and 14th-century panel paintings from Tuscany. Previous research in art history showcased a strong connection between the shapes of punches and specific artists or workshops, suggesting the possibility of using these quantitative cues to support the attribution. In the present work, we first collect a dataset of large-scale images of these panel paintings. Then, using YOLOv10, a recent and popular object detection model, we train a ML pipeline to perform object detection on the punches contained in the images. Due to the large size of the images, the detection procedure is split across multiple frames by adopting a sliding-window approach with overlaps, after which the predictions are combined for the whole image using a custom non-maximal suppression routine. Our results indicate how art historians working in the field can reliably use our method for the identification and extraction of punches.